American paradox named MacArthur

By Vincent Bosquez, For the Express-News

Published 11:59 am, Friday, July 11, 2014

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SAN ANTONIO — Gen. Douglas MacArthur, perhaps one of the greatest generals to serve in the Army, once declared to a joint session of Congress after his abrupt dismissal as commander in chief of the United Nations forces in Korea, that “old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

MacArthur, for half a century on active duty, shaped American policy.

In “The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur,” biographer Mark Perry unravels the essence of a man who climbed to the top through tenacity and lots of grandiosity.

Perry gives us an Army officer who lived his life by a soldier's creed of honor that at times shockingly clashed with his vanity and sense of self-righteousness. This paradox of human nature would occasionally lead him to flout authority on the public stage with national and international leaders.

For those unfamiliar with MacArthur, he had accomplished a great deal in his life prior to his initial retirement from the Army in 1938. His father, a Medal of Honor recipient for leading his Wisconsin regiment during the Civil War, was the model he followed in his own military life. Both men had a penchant for offending powerful figures; each was an admired but tough battlefield commander.

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After graduating from West Point, where MacArthur earned the highest grades of any cadet since Robert E. Lee, he served in the Philippines and then led the 42nd Division into German lines at Côte de Châtillon during World War I, where his courage earned him seven Silver Star medals.

MacArthur's subsequent accomplishments prior to World War II would have been a stellar career for any other soldier: superintendent of West Point; commander of the Military District of Manila; and head of the U.S. Olympic Committee. By the time he was 50, MacArthur was named as Army chief of staff by President Hoover.

Things began to get interesting for MacArthur once Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to run for president. This is where Perry gives us a larger-than-life MacArthur in all his self-absorbed glory and cunning military brilliance. Just weeks after winning the Democratic Party's nomination in 1932, Roosevelt called MacArthur the “most dangerous man in America” and began looking for ways to tame him and make him useful during his administration.

President Roosevelt thought he had the perfect place for MacArthur in the Philippines. When MacArthur retired in 1938 and stayed there in his new role as a field marshal in the Philippine Army, rumblings were in the air regarding Hitler and Germany's desires to overtake Europe. Things were still quiet in Asia, but not for long.

More Information

The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur

By Mark Perry

Basic Books, $29.99

“The Most Dangerous Man in America” is Perry's tour de force as a biographer. With scholarly precision and a desire to present MacArthur as a man, minus the myth and the legend, he gives us a detailed look into our nation's top soldier in the east during World War II. Despite MacArthur's flaws, and they don't go unrecognized here, his brilliance when it came time to enact the first combined-arms operation in the Pacific is captivatingly told for all to understand.